Engaging Boys and Young Men in the Prevention of Sexual Violence

This is an executive summary was taken up by the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, based on 65 case studies from 11 different countries. The objective of this review is to investigate the effectiveness of interventions for preventing boys’ and young men’s use of sexual violence. The focus is on high-quality studies, defined as having a randomized controlled or quasi-experimental design. The studies reviewed in this article provide substantial evidence of effectiveness of interventions to improve boys’ and young men’s attitudes towards rape and other forms of violence against women, as well as attitudes towards rigid gender stereotypes that condone or allow this violence to occur. The review also tries to explain behavioral and attitudinal changes over time toward sexual violence, as well as the implications on further practice and further research that these case studies could have.